Cape Disappointment Lighthouse and Stars (+Edits)

[Kyle Jones]

I made a quick family trip to the Southern Washington coast this weekend, and was able to sneak out for some night shooting. Happily enough the skies were clear. After shooting some shots over the ocean (haven't processed those yet), I moved closer to the lighthouse to emphasize it against the sky. Let me know what you think!

[Edit] Here's one with the rails removed and the sky brightened a little more. Works for me...

[Edit Again] Completing the removal of the fence...

 

[AlanLichty]

I like this view of the lighthouse. The light rays from the beacon are an interesting touch. I am not sure I have ever had clear skies out there for night shooting.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Very nice Kyle.

 

[lionking]

I like the concept, and the light from LH looks very cool, i would be tempted to crop the rails and maybe and darken the LH bottom a bit, as well as brightening the MW.

 

[Tom Narwid]

I made a quick family trip to the Southern Washington coast this weekend, and was able to sneak out for some night shooting. Happily enough the skies were clear. After shooting some shots over the ocean (haven't processed those yet), I moved closer to the lighthouse to emphasize it against the sky. Let me know what you think!
View attachment 11586

No disappointment here...great catch!

 

[Zeph]

The industrial feel works for me, but the real score is the cloudless sky!

 

[Douglas Sherman]

No disappointment for me either, Kyle.

 

[JimFox]

Hey Kyle,

This is sure cool! I love the perspective here! Getting up close and having the lighthouse go from wide at the bottom to narrow is sweet, almost like the lighthouse is a bullet speeding up to the heavens. I also like the red beams radiating out at the top.

Did you have to have to bracket for focus?

I don't mind the light source at the bottom of the lighthouse, I think it helps draw the eye to the cool detail and texture of it. My first two thoughts about the fencing was "oh no", but then also "it would be a pain to remove". The fencing is there in real life. Even with the fencing, I really love this shot! So now the perfectionist and the realist parts of my mind are off fighting about the fence...

 

[Kyle Jones]

I like this view of the lighthouse. The light rays from the beacon are an interesting touch. I am not sure I have ever had clear skies out there for night shooting.

Thanks Alan - I truly didn't expect clear skies either. Happy to take advantage though...

I like the concept, and the light from LH looks very cool, i would be tempted to crop the rails and maybe and darken the LH bottom a bit, as well as brightening the MW.

Thanks Andrey. I did play around with cropping out the rails, but the lighthouse started to feel too "alone" without some grounding. I've already darkened the bottom and brightened the stars (I was looking almost straight up, so it isn't the MW core), but I'll see if I feel comfortable pushing it a little further.

No disappointment here...great catch!

Thanks a lot Tom

Hey Kyle,

This is sure cool! I love the perspective here! Getting up close and having the lighthouse go from wide at the bottom to narrow is sweet, almost like the lighthouse is a bullet speeding up to the heavens. I also like the red beams radiating out at the top.

Did you have to have to bracket for focus?

I don't mind the light source at the bottom of the lighthouse, I think it helps draw the eye to the cool detail and texture of it. My first two thoughts about the fencing was "oh no", but then also "it would be a pain to remove". The fencing is there in real life. Even with the fencing, I really love this shot! So now the perfectionist and the realist parts of my mind are off fighting about the fence...

I didn't have to bracket for focus. This was at 14mm f/2.8 so there is still plenty of DOF for this. I was probably 20 feet from the bottom of the lighthouse. I did struggle with the fence. My initial goal was to find an angle with the MW core visible and the stars stretching over the lighthouse. Unfortunately, the light off to the right that is providing the side light was in the frame and it just wasn't possible. The fence is too close to the lighthouse to avoid, so I figure'd I'd just have to go with it. I could spend some time cloning, but industrial is fine.

[Edit] OK, I did the cloning. Second version added to the original post.

 

[lionking]

Love the edit better Kyle.

 

[JimFox]

Oh sweet! Love the edit with the removal of the fencing.

I just totally enjoy this image. I have a new analogy, The lighthouse looks like a rocket ship blasting off to the stars!

 

[AlanLichty]

MeToo on the fence removal. That looks much nicer as the fence was a bit distracting. I didn't realize how distracting it was until I saw the edit.

 

[Panther]

WOWSER I love the Perspective and The Star, Very Nice Kyle, I like your Second Version !!!

Take Care,

Craig

 

[JimFox]

Congrats on the Daily Featured Post Kyle!

 

[Joe Colozzo]

Great shot Kyle. I love the perspective type shots and you nailed this one. The light from the lighthouse is a sweet touch. Stars are always a hit, you do them so well!

 

[Jeffrey]

Fascinating image here Kyle. The combo of natural and man-applied light makes it like science fiction. I think you should continue and remove the rest of the railings and whatever that other object is there lower right. I liked the original sky, as I think most night sky images are too bright.

 

[Kyle Jones]

Wow, thanks for the feature!

Fascinating image here Kyle. The combo of natural and man-applied light makes it like science fiction. I think you should continue and remove the rest of the railings and whatever that other object is there lower right. I liked the original sky, as I think most night sky images are too bright.

Thanks Jeffrey - I'll take a shot at the fence. I was starting to think about that too. I expect I'll be vacillating on the sky for a while.

 

[JimFox]

Wow, thanks for the feature!



Thanks Jeffrey - I'll take a shot at the fence. I was starting to think about that too. I expect I'll be vacillating on the sky for a while.

Kyle, I agree with Jeffrey. I think it would be easy now to remove the rest of that fence, and then pull down that corner and lose that bit of grass. As for the brightness of the stars, I think it looks perfect as it is. Usually with the tail of the MW, when starting to push the brightness of it too much it starts looking a bit wonky.

This image has Photo of the Year written all over it!

 

[lionking]

Fascinating image here Kyle. The combo of natural and man-applied light makes it like science fiction. I think you should continue and remove the rest of the railings and whatever that other object is there lower right. I liked the original sky, as I think most night sky images are too bright.

My thoughts exactly, i didnt want to push Kyle too much, but since now we are all in this boat, i'll make another suggestion,
i would fix the magenta cast in the sky, this will open other colors in MW, and make a better color separation between the red LH light and blueish sky with MW...

 

[Gaz]

Nice affect Kyle!